Van Buren, NY — Police identified Lewis Pipher as the man who was killed in a tractor-trailer accident at a FedEx facility in Van Buren, New York, on Saturday, November 15, 2014. The accident took place around 1:30 in the morning.
Reports say that Pipher was a passenger in a tractor-trailer that had pulled up near the facility’s security building. He exited the truck and had walked around in front of it, out of sight of Anselm Martin, the truck’s driver. Martin put the truck into gear, hitting Pipher as he was moving to park the truck.
Emergency workers took Pipher to Upstate Medical Center, where he passed away a short time later.
Police are continuing to investigate the accident.
Scene of the Accident
Commentary
The question of where liability for this accident falls is going to depend on who the victim was, and what he was doing at the scene. From what’s been reported, it seems most likely that he was employed by the trucking company. If that turns out to be the case, then this is going to be handled through the employer’s workers’ comp policy. As most know, workers’ comp is a benefit system which provides coverage for things like medical and funeral expenses and lost wages following an on-the-job accident. If the victim wasn’t an employee and instead just a passenger inside the truck, then his family would be free to file a claim against the company.
Unfortunately, talk of filing claims always seems to devolve into a shouting match about greed and cashing in on a loved one’s misfortune. I think a lot of those arguments are very misguided. Accidents like this happen for many reasons. Sometimes, they’re just accidents. Other times, they’re caused because of mechanical defects and driver inattention. Filing a claim against a company following an accident like this allows the justice system to put them beneath a microscope, so that if there are changes that need to be made — whether they’re to things such as safety procedures or hiring practices — they can be, hopefully assuring that accidents like this can be avoided in the future.
— Grossman Law Offices
